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Show Early American Style Simplest of Furniture "Colonial" is a general term designating des-ignating those architectural and furniture fur-niture styles produced while America Amer-ica was still under England's rule and for a short time after the Declaration Dec-laration of Independence . . . the period from 1608 to about 1830. On the other hand, "Early American" designates only one period of this span of years the very earliest, from 1608 to about 1720. Early American is the simplest of all American styles. Few of the early settlers were from wealthy classes; they were unsophisticated pioneer people of humble origin, concerned primarily with providing for their families the simple necessities neces-sities of life. Their first houses were built of pine because that wood was plentiful all about them. There was little thought of making those houses "showy" or "pretty" or "decorative." "decora-tive." Their purpose was to keep out the weather, the forest animals and Indians. Walls were mostly wood paneled because plaster was expensive expen-sive and hard to get. The furniture that went into these houses was extremely simple and practical, features which are still its greatest appeal. There were few cabinet-makers among the settlers, so carpenters turned their hand to furniture making. Naturally they copied, from memory for the most part, the current styles in Europe, depending upon the country from which they had come. The Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania settlers, for instance, were originally from England and Germany; Ger-many; those in New England and Virginia were for the most part from England; those who settled along the Hudson and Delaware rivers were from Holland and Sweden. The furniture fur-niture which they built, therefore, was provincial versions of the modes of their respective countries. |